This is to share with all of you the information that Comrade Roma, General Secretary of All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), Sokalo and Avijit, along with five other activists have been arrested today (June 30, 2015) early morning. They were arrested from the Union office at Robertsganj, Sonbhadra District, Uttar Pradesh. This arrest definitely comes in the wake of the various protests in which they have been openly challenging the illegal nexus of corporate, feudal elements and the forest department. They were picked up and taken to an undisclosed location.

AIUFWP had recently organized a rally in Lucknow on 12-14 of June 2015 demanding the NDA government to scrap the Land ordinance, implement Land rights in the state for peasants, agricultural workers and landless. The rally was attended by more than 2000 people who raised voices for the implementation of Forest Rights Act, formation of cooperatives on the Forest produce, ending state repression on people in Kanhar valley and taking legal action against the police firing on Ambedkar Jayanti and 18th April 2015. It is necessary to acknowledge that there have been various efforts on part of the government to use violent mechanisms to curb such voices of dissent.

We strongly feel that Roma and other activists are being targeted by the UP administration for defending the natural resources being looted in the name of the greater common good. We need to respond to this injustice immediately. Kindly send faxes and emails to the Chief Minister urging him to immediately release the activists and stop this harassment.